delatbabel
Posts: 1252
Joined: 7/30/2006 From: Sydney, Australia Status: offline
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The Swan River runs south of Perth, not north of it. As you go upstream from Perth proper, it becomes the Avon River. 3 hexes SE of Mackay on the Queensland map is a hex with a crossing arrow to an island hex to its E. That hex is where Airlie Beach & Shute Harbour are, and the island hex would contain Cid Harbour. During WWII these were important marshalling areas and supply ports for the Australian and US Navies and should rate minor port status at least. The significant town on the rail junction there is Proserpine. The area is now a major tourist destination. The coastal hexes north/west of Geraldton in Western Australia and including the ones in Shark Bay (the double inlet in that area), as well as the island hexes 3 and 4 hexes NW of Geraldton should all be desert hexes. For reference, Denham which is the major town in the Shark Bay area has an annual average rainfall of 7mm. No doubt the hexes inland of that should be desert hexes as well. There is really not a whole lot of rainfall in this area. I concur with Christo's comments about the cliffs along the southern coast of Australia -- desert hexes along the Great Australian Bight. I have sailed as well as driven this area, there are no landing points, the cliffs are up to 200ft high in some places. The unlabelled river that runs around the outside of the Sydney hex (yes it really does that) is the Hawkesbury / Nepean. It was originally thought to be two separate rivers, one to the north and one to the west and south west, until some explorer discovered that they actually join up. I concur with the comment about Lakes Entrance in Victoria being a swamp hex. It is quite a hazardous entry even for small boats. I would discard the Ipswich river south of Brisbane, it is not a significant waterway (it's a small creek, really) which is why you're not finding it on maps. The Brisbane River runs through the middle of Brisbane from the bay that is shown there (Moreton Bay) and should be placed on the NE hexside of the hex containing Brisbane, and then following the line that you have drawn for the Ipswich river. It is navigable by shipping along some of its length. Brisbane is not a significant port. The approaches to it through Moreton Bay are fairly tricky, and it doesn't have a lot of deep water anchorage or channels. The largest port in Queensland is Gladstone, which is in the mountain hex 2 hexes SE of Airlie Beach / Proserpine (mentioned above). The largest port in NSW (and in fact the largest coal port in the world) is Newcastle, which is not marked on the map, but should be in the hex NE of Sydney. This should contain a resource (coal) or possibly two, it has the world's largest coal deposit. The largest port in Western Australia is Port Hedland, which is also not marked on the map. It is approximately 4 or 5 hexes SW along the coast from Broome. Perth is not a port, the nearby port is called Fremantle and it is not as large a port as Port Hedland because of the railway bridge which blocks access to the river (zoom in on these in google maps if you like). I believe that the railway bridge at Fremantle predates the war.
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-- Del
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